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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1989)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 27 No, 44 Thursday, December 14. 1989 $15.00 Per Year THE PRESENCE OF GOD — Churches are forms, to evoke the sense of His presence for designed to be God’s sanctuary and, in different those who come. See story on page 7. The Vulnerable God-Emmanuel BY FATHER RICHARD LOPEZ If you want to recall what it means to cherish a sense of “presence,” watch children. Babies sense immediate ly the presence or absence of their mothers. For older children, seating at holiday meals always must be next to a favorite relative. Watch how even older children pile into buses, struggling to sit next to their best friend. I was babysitting last year for my five-year-old nephew, trying to bribe him to go to bed. He finally agreed, if I would read him a book of his choice. I said: “Of course, go get it!” He returned with an en cyclopedia. I said: “Don- ny, if I read this I’ll be here till next year,” and he said, "Uncle Richie, wouldn’t that be nice!” That is a child who understands the value of “presence.” And a child whose charm en hances his presence. One of Advent’s themes has to be the charm of God’s presence. I suppose there were any number of ways God could have made His presence real to us. He could have chosen to tear the skies open with His angels and with fire...such a presence would have cer tainly brought us to our knees in fear and awe. I suppose He could have come as a brilliant philosopher or theologian who would have dazzled and satisfied all the great minds of this planet. Such a presence would have left us dumbfounded in amaze ment and respect. However, God chose a most unique way to in troduce anew His presence into the world He created, the world that rejected Him. He came as a baby. He came as a "baby who needed to be held and loved. By making himself vulnerable instead of powerful, by making himself dependent instead of dreadful, He tore down the walls of our hard hearts and drew out a flood of love in response to His love. In that event of coming to us in humility and weakness we encounter the heart of our religion, God made flesh, the incarna tion. In this mystery is the staggering unique truth of Christianity, that the God whom the heavens cannot contain becomes a baby. His presence among us is a baby. For centuries some men and women have stayed outside the Church because of this truth. They admire our “ethics,” they respect our saints, they appreciate our art and music, and they feel uplifted by our ceremonies, but they stay strangers to faith, because they cannot kneel down to God in flesh, God in a baby. To a certain extent, the continuation of the presence of God in the flesh, the Eucharist, presents the same stagger ing challenge. How can bread be the real presence of God? (Continued on page 8) Fourth Sunday In Advent A virgin will give birth to a son; his name will be Em manuel Matthew 1:23 El Salvador Prelate Charges Witness Coerced SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CNS) — A rare public dispute erupted between the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador and Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas of San Salvador after the archbishop accused U.S. officials of in timidating an apparent witness to the murder of six Jesuits. The archbishop said the officials forced the witness into retracting her testimony implicating the Salvadoran armed forces. Ambassador William Walker denied the archbishop’s ac cusation. Later, President Bush also denied the accusation. The witness, Lucia Barrera de Cerna, a 44-year-old housekeeper, was reported at the time of the accusations to be somewhere in the United States with Jesuit officials. Archbishop Rivera Damas said in a Dec. 10 Sunday homi ly that he had been told by lawyers and churchmen that Mrs. Barrera was subjected to an aggressive and violent in terrogation in the United States. “Instead of being protected, as U.S. representatives in El Salvador had promised, she was subjected to a veritable brainwashing in that country and to the blackmail that she would be deported if she did not tell the truth,” the archbishop said. “After this psychological torment, Mrs. Barrera hesitated and retracted her statement,” he said. Speaking to reporters later, he said Mrs. Barrera’s treat ment appeared to be in the interests of “those from here” — an apparent reference to the right-wing, U.S. - backed Salvadoran government. The archbishop said that because the investigation “con tinues to point toward the overwhelming hypothesis that it was elements of the army” who carried out the Jesuits’ murder, U.S. officials “are taking care that the path toward the clarification of the matter cannot be followed.” In a statement, Ambassador Walker said Archbishop Rivera Damas’ information was incorrect. “Iam saddened that the archbishop doesn’t believe that the U.S. govern- (Continued on page 8) INSIDE Christmas '89 As many homeless as Great Depression page 2 Venezuela Report Trappist monks in La Azulita page 5 Catholic Politicians Many in debate with their bishops page 5 Ecology And Pope Jan. 1 statement first on environment page 10
